The significance of civil society has long been recognized in crisis and disaster research (Solnit, 2010). Nevertheless, characterizing volunteers merely as "good Samaritans" responding to specific needs oversimplifies the multifaceted nature of their engagement. While volunteers often frame their actions as a "way of living", exclusively emphasizing positive aspects neglects the complexities surrounding voluntary work within civil society.
To emphasize the compelxity surrounding voluntary crisis work, this article aims to analyze how civil society actors make sense of spatial-political structures in order to motivate their ” choice” to perform voluntary work. Consequently, we consider voluntary work, in both voluntary and involuntary terms, and argue that we need to view volunteerism as a result of structural conditions such as financial cuts in official service, changing political ideology, and the changed organizing of society. Drawing on interviews with individuals active in Swedish civil society, both affiliated and unaffiliated with Civil Society Organizations, various types of voluntary and involuntary work emerge, often intertwined with political ideology and societal critique. Therefore, the article demonstrates that voluntary work extends beyond altruism, encompassing internal and external struggles marked by politicization, power dynamics, positioning, and the collective pursuit of societal improvement.